The Condemned Man
by StarsInTheRain
Summary: Almost a year ago the last Uchiha was finally imprisoned. His execution looms ever closer, but is it really the end for him? Living through pain, understanding, murder, sacrifice and love, this is the story of the redemption of Sasuke Uchiha.
1. Vigil of the People

Okay, this is basically the same chapter edited, but I've extended one part at the end, and there are quite a few little sections added-although not exactly part of the story-they're more symbolic of the characters. ^_^

Also, I thought that the chapter titles I had before were a bit too simple, and didn't represent the content well enough, so that's altered as well.

Shikamaru's section will now be in the next chapter, which will be made much longer. Sorry it's gone, but not for long. It just didn't fit in this chapter, which is more made up of reflections.

I've also got rid of that jutsu Sasuke mentioned, as I realised it would ruin the whole point of the story, and he isn't supposed to develop that much quite yet.

You can also expect Gaara to make an appearance in either the next chapter (which will be up in no less than another week, come hell or high water) or the one after

Overall, this story will have three to four chapters, so don't give up on me yet! I know I'm a horribly slow updater, but I'm also a perfectionist, and I still have a lot to learn with fanfiction writing.

_Vigil of the People_

Time passes on.

Stretching through each dusky, twilight day, fading into the next.

But only where there is life and life isn't a word my dead mind understands anymore.

To me, the condemned man, time no longer means anything. It is only a thing that prolongs my suffering, reminds me of my crimes. For all I have left are memories of what once was, and never will be again.

I have almost forgotten what the world above feels like.

The exhilaration of feeling a soft, cool breeze caress me. A sunset that burns fiery gold and ruby, standing in the heart of a raging storm, dawns that illuminate the forest-cloaked landscape in a tangle of cobweb shadows and latticework patterns of light.

Just faint dreams to me, who hasn't been let out of my prison cell for almost a year. Memories that slip out of my grasp, until all I can feel is the endless night of these underground dungeons.

What was the point of imprisoning me? Why wasn't I killed, all those months ago?

No. Deep down, I know the answer. I wasn't struck down like a normal traitor and murderer, because I am not the usual one. The punishment of letting me live with my sins is so much worse than death. The misery and bleakness is unbearable, and the biting loneliness a thousand times worse, but anything is better than the hate-filled shell I was, even if it shielded my mind from the pain.

Death is an escape, but I don't want to die, I need to see the ones I love one last time.

I know I don't deserve it, but I must, even if I am shown the same indifference that I gave them. That is my last bit of hope, the only light and reason that stops me from slipping into insanity in this dark, tiny space.

Maybe after death, I might see my brother again, and tell him how very, very sorry I am for killing him, although I can never go to the same place as he did, never mind I didn't know it was murder then. I thought I was giving him justice for a crime that was far beyond his control.

But that's not part of my life anymore, I think sadly with a long sigh, and let the thought go like a breath of fleeting wind.

One way or another, I'll be dying tomorrow night, and then give retribution for my sins in hell.

No. Can't think like that. What would they say, my brother, and the one who is more important than life itself? My brother died so I could live, and they both repaid all my hate with love, the idiots. I was never worth caring for, and I'm still not.

The murders I have committed. The trust I betrayed. The intensity of my hatred.

_Why?_

*

Soon afterwards, I gaze through the bars of my prison cell, and see somebody coming, coming to let me out of my prison for my last, precious night alive. I strain my eyes, trying to see through the velvety dark to see who they are.

'Who's there?' I ask, my voice husky from months of disuse.

A candle flickers, and I groan from the pain of light to my eyes. My eyes slowly adjust, and with a jolt of misery, I realise that the face in front of me is twisted is disgust and hate as they look upon me as the betrayer I am, and murderer I was.

'Get up, you scum.' says the voice in a scathing tone. 'You won't be fouling air by breathing in and out much longer.' The key glints, clinking into the lock, and I'm so glad I don't know who they are. I can't bear any more hatred from the people of the village, and as I stand, shaking, and have diamond handcuffs locked into place until we're outside. I feel a sense of relief.

It will be over soon.

My jailer leaves me sitting next to the stone archway next to the village's prison, knowing I'm too weak to move, but I don't mind.

I hear a footstep about two meters away, and I wish my jailer would leave. But then I hear a voice, the voice I've dreamed of for months, but never heard for so, so long!

'S-Sasuke?' he says hesitantly, not coming any closer.

_Naruto! _I gasp in shock, my voice rough with emotion. 'I. . .'

Stuttering, I can't continue. What do I _do_? What do I _say? _No . . . wait. I can't reply. Naruto has suffered so much on my account, dedicated years of his life to my saving, and never, ever gave up on me. Better I brush him off, so he won't have to hurt when I die tomorrow. Nobody deserves happiness more than Naruto, and I won't be the one to wound him again. He most likely hates me now, and that's best for him.

'Why are you here?' I ask in a dead voice, trying to hold back the flood of pain, standing to meet him.

Naruto catches his breath, and bows his head. 'You know why, Sasuke! I only found out this morning that your exe . . . .' His voice cracks and his shoulders start to shake. 'I haven't seen you in months, nobody would tell me where you were being held, and we haven't talked properly for years! Sasuke, I know you don't give a damn, but to me you are closer than a brother, and I _care for you too damned much to bear the thought that you're going to die! _Naruto yells with hurt.

My blank face crumbles. I . . . I can't believe it. A great wave of joy washes away some of my misery. Naruto still cares, even after everything I put him through!

Trembling, I look him in the face. Naruto's face is twisted with resigned pain,

and he's fallen onto his knees in the long swaying grass, choking back tears.

Shit! He can't be hurt again because of me! Ignoring Naruto would force him to forget about me, but . . . I can't do this anymore.

'Why can't you just forget about me, loser?' I gasp brokenly, my own knees buckling under me, and the tears I fought so hard to keep back finally break free. 'Why don't you get that I'll only ever hurt you?'

Naruto's sky-blue eyes misting, he stares at me in shock. 'Huh?' he says, bursting into tears.

'_I'm a criminal, murderer and traitor!'_ I growl through my teeth, desperately willing him to understand that he was too good for me. _'I don't deserve you!'_

'You're Sasuke, my best friend!' he yells right back, grabbing at my arm. 'So you're a criminal! I sure as hell couldn't care less!'

Naruto cries harder, and we're both overcome with emotion, but he shouldn't cry. How to stop him? I need to make him realise what I say is true.

Tentatively, I touch Naruto's shoulder, and then pull him into my arms.

Huh. Feels strange. I haven't touched anyone in years except in battle, but. . . It's a nice kind of strange.

'Get over it, loser,' I murmur, hugging him tighter. 'I won't be hurting you for much longer, and the future Hokage should be strong. I guess you've almost achieved one of your goals now!'

'But you still don't get it, do you, Sasuke?' Naruto says sadly. 'You're one of the few people I can't live without!'

'_Why?_ I'm not worth it, and all I've ever been to you is a complete bastard.' I answer, confused, but . . . . . kind of happy.

'You gave me a reason to keep going, Sasuke' Naruto says through his tears, and the typical, so _Naruto_, cheesy, over-the-top, but beautiful, beautiful huge grin breaks across his face, like the sun after an eclipse.

Idiot. He really hasn't changed in the slightest. Which is just why I never could get rid of all feelings for him!

'Ha.' I smirk back at him. 'That really makes me feel better. By the way, loser?'

'Yeah?'

'You want my love, you have it, like it or not.' I whisper gently. 'Not much point for me to deny it anymore.'

Naruto stares at me, speechless. Tears flow down his face, but his eyes are shining with pure joy, and looking at him now, this is the closest I've been to happiness in years. Nobody can replace my brother Itachi. But . . . . . somehow; Naruto is the only person now who can fill the void in my soul, and I won't let any harm come to him in the short time that I have left.

*

_The land cries out in pain as her landscapes shrivel and die, rotting away into nothing. _

_Soon, all life is crushed under the fury and hatred that I could not control._

_The village's buildings crumble, its rivers and fountains running with clotted blood, dreams vanishing before my eyes._

_So much as a single mouthful of air is saturated with the cloying stink of death._

_The sky shatters into a hundred thousand jagged shards, and before me, fading stars fall._

_The universe dies, drawing in a silent breath._

_At the end of all things, even though I have no right, I hope for the world's rebirth._

'_For I was the Enemy.'_

_*_

Soon afterwards, in the darkest hour of the night, just before dawn, I sense people approaching, probably my damn guards come to escort the criminal to the holding cell in the Hokage's mansion. Desolation sweeps over me. Imprisonment again so soon, and I won't be allowed to see Naruto again, but I shove that thought aside before it can rip me apart.

'Naruto!' I run over to where he's sleeping and shake his shoulder. 'Wake up! You have to get away from here before they see you with me!' He blinks a few times, and then jumps up.

'I'm not going, Sasuke. I'm staying with you!' he says stubbornly, fire glinting in his blue eyes.

'No! You'll be tried as well for helping me! I won't do that to you!' I growl angrily at him. 'Go!'

'Fine, damn it! But I will see you again, even if I have to break into Tsunade-baachan's mansion!'

And he's gone, vanished down the path to the village in a flash of orange and black.

I try to believe his words, but already the misery is creeping back. I sit on a log, and wait as the ANBU approach, slowly making their way up the dark hill, merging with the shadows.

'Uchiha! It's time. Come with us.' a harsh voice says, and the four ANBU guards are here to take me away.

They raise their hands, and thin sapphire threads of chakra flow around my neck and wrists, binding and restricting my movement. 'Don't try anything funny, you filthy traitor.' the tall captain spits, cutting open my cheek, and his infuriating words spark off some of the old hatred in my dead mind.

I stay silent though, gritting my teeth in anger. But then I remember _why_ I'm in this situation, and my irritation dies as I try to concentrate on the fact that I deserve everything I get.

They march me to the gates of Konoha, and painful memories overwhelm me. All the times I left and returned on missions as a part of Team 7, with Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi. I remember trying to hide my excitement when we first went to the Land of Waves, feeling black anticipation as I chased after Gaara in the Chuunin Exams, being consumed by terror as I tried to find Naruto to warn him that Itachi was after his life. Those memories of the boy I was now seem like something that happened in another lifetime.

And then there was the fateful day, when I left Konoha for the Sound. Even now, I can't decide if I truly regret it or not. But it doesn't matter anymore, does it? Naruto knows I'm sorry, but I never spoke to Sakura or Kakashi! An icy dagger pierces my heart, and the memory of when we first became Team 7 surfaces.

'_You said that there were three of us! That's what you said, and that's why Sakura and, um . . . .' Naruto yelled at Kakashi._

'_We're all in this squad, and we're all in it together!' I growled in defiance._

'_Yes, that's right! We gave our lunch to him because the three of us are one!' Sakura agreed, clenching her fists. _

'_The three of you are one? That's your excuse?! Then it's settled. You all pass!' Kakashi smiled._

'Ask him.' one of the ANBU says. 'I suppose it is Lady Hokage's orders.' the captain mutters reluctantly. He removes his mask, and horrible guilt adds to the pain. He's the brother to the Leaf Chuunin I killed a year ago.

'Any last wishes, Uchiha?'

'Yeah,' I say, 'I want to see my old teammates again.'

'Guess it's all right . . . . they did ask, well, demand, to speak to him one last time,' the third ANBU agent mutters. 'Don't know why the hell they wanted to. If I'd ever known _this . . .'_ he says, glaring at me with revulsion, 'I'd want to forget about him completely!'

The words cut deep, and I shudder with pain, trying to summon back the safe numbness that clouded my mind for so long. We've reached the deepest shadows behind the sentry's stand just inside the village (with Kotetsu and Izumo snoring inside) and the golden sun is beginning to crest the horizon, combating the heavy granite clouds that shield Konoha's skies.

I glance upwards, and freeze in shock.

Kakashi, Sakura, Kiba, Hinata and Shikamaru are approaching in random order, but only Kakashi can see me and the ANBU behind. He frowns deeply and motions Sakura aside, stepping to lean against the wall with her until the rest go away, but they all walk towards the sentry's stand. I try to melt into the shadows, but it's no good, Kiba's already glimpsed my dark figure.

Bowing my head, terrible guilt begins to rip me apart, for the thousandth time as their shocked faces reflect some of my worst memories of all. I try to blank my thoughts again, but they fight back, searing and burning their way in front of my eyes, all too clear!

No! Don't remember! Stay safe! My mind screams.

Too late. What's the point in denying the truth, anyway, moron? I tell myself. I'm a bloody murderer.

Ordering Juugo to kill Shino just after my delivery of the Eight-Tailed Jinchuuriki, and slipping a knife into Chouji's back personally, I think in mute despair. Unforgivable and all because of my mad, horrible obsession with revenge on Itachi for murdering our family!

None of them will be as kind and forgiving as Naruto, and nothing I say will be listened to, for I have killed their best friends. I severed my ties with Konoha the day I left it, and I won't get anything but pure hatred now. Not even the ANBU will bother to help me, so I prepare for the onslaught with a dead mind.

'SASUKE!_ How could you ever get up the fucking nerve to show your face here, bastard!?' _Kiba hisses, turning away from the counter and facing me, immediately alerting all the other to my presence.

Shikamaru tenses, and seems to be exerting huge self control not to start screaming at me too. '_Murderer,_' he spits, 'I won't bat so much as an eyelid tonight at the momentof your execution!

Upon hearing their . . . true. . words, the guilt seeps deeper into my heart and I cry out softly in pain, finally raising my head to look at their hate-filled eyes, welling over with accusation.

And then some of the memories I'm fighting so hard to forget swim before my eyes and explode with vibrancy and sound, but most of all, the smell and colour of blood.

'No,' I whisper weakly, but it's way too late.

_Taka, traveling through the trees toward Akatsuki's hideout at sunset, Karin telling me she senses three leaf ninja shadowing us. We stop at the top of an evergreen tree and so do they, less than ten metres behind us. Suigetsu leaps in a graceful arc, and sweeps his sword, felling the tree they are on._

'_Spies,' Karin hisses, narrowing her cold eyes. At a nod from me, Juugo moves with lightning speed and traps one of them in a headlock, disorientating the boy with a flash of his cursed chakra._

_The two others move as if to save their comrade but freeze with shock when they see me, and a bone-chilling wind cuts through the blood-red heavens, but the only thing moving is the leaves dancing astride the cold wind._

'_Sasuke,' the three leaf ninja murmur. I glance at their faces with disinterest, and remember who they are. Kiba, Hinata and Shino, a few of my old classmates. _

_Juugo tightens his grip on Shino's neck. 'What do I do with him, Sasuke?' he asks._

_I walk forward slowly with Karin and Suigetsu flanking me, and consider for a moment, but then decide._

'_Kill him,' I command, and a scarlet spray of Shino's lifeblood flies through the light of the dying sun._

_NOOOOOO! Stop it! No more!_ I scream, twisting in agony, but the vision won't let me go.

_This is what you've done, a voice whispers from somewhere in my heart. Face it._

_Alone, I run down a shadowy road, livid with fury that the Eighth Jinchuuriki got away, not noticing where my feet are taking me, and leaving the rest of Taka far behind. The gate to a moonlit shrine looms high above, and the silhouettes of ninja are outlined on the small shrine's pearly door. Tensing, I ready for battle, then dodge thrown kunai and tear down the lacquered door._

_Ten ANBU are waiting inside, ready to ambush me. One remarks casually, 'It's the Uchiha brat. Hard to believe he was ever a ninja of the Leaf.'_

'_Yeah. It's so disgusting that he went and turned traitor, the freak.' another agrees._

'_You know nothing about me!' I whisper in a menacing tone. The sputtering candles on the wall flicker and die, and my murderous rage reaches its peak. They start to move to attack, but before a single one can do anything, I lunge forwards and past the first man, weaving in a deadly pattern throughout them all, drawing my sword and slashing across their necks, the Chidori seeming to sparkle with delight._

_A minute later, I stand in the doorway and look at their corpses, watching the redness of death drip slowly off my hands and sword, letting the bloodlust take over every corner of my being._

_A crash sounds, and another Konoha ninja gasps in horror as he enters through the roof, sent for backup. 'Sasuke!' he stutters._

'_Shouldn't have come, should you, Chouji?' I smirk in pleasure. 'No witnesses allowed here.'_

_He surges forwards with incredible speed, gathering chakra to a fist, but I vanish to the side and stab a blood-soaked kunai deep into Chouji's back, whispering into his ear as he dies._

'_Justice is approaching for you, Leaf.'_

*

I fall back into reality, and dimly realise I must have collapsed, but those damn chakra bindings were holding me up while still draining my strength. I mourn the fact I'm not dead.

I hope the misery to come is bad. I hope I really suffer. Although the pain now would be_ nothing_ to the pain if I allowed myself to remember killing Ita . . . . But I stop the thought cold.

Suddenly sharp pain flares on my forehead, and then again on my neck.

Shikamaru had punched me 'For you, Chouji,' he whispers in grief, and looks like he's about to strike again. But then a gloved hand grabs his arm and shoves him aside, and with a flash of deep silver hair I recognise my old teacher.

'I understand how you feel only too well, Shikamaru.' Kakashi says harshly, stepping in front of me. 'But it is forbidden to hurt criminals, even when they're scheduled for execution. Leave now, all of you!'

Disappointment flares in Kiba's brown eyes, but they all begin to reluctantly leave.

'No.' I whisper, shaking black strands of hair out of my eyes. 'You're right, both of you.'

They all stop in their tracks. 'Stop the act, Sasuke,' Kakashi growls,'Naruto can't save you now. Nobody is taken in.'

'_We're supposed to believe he's sorry?!' _Kiba shouts, glaring at me with loathing. 'A few lying words from this traitor, _can't bring the people he slaughtered back to life!_ '

I meet his eyes, my own overflowing with pain, and a single tear falls, washing away some of the blood on my cheek.

'None of you can _ever_ hate me as much as I hate myself!' I tell him in a quiet but clear voice.

Kakashi's staring at me is disbelief, but lowers his guard a little. Sakura emerges out of the shadows, finally looking at me with her clear jade eyes, and her expression is hopeful, but also slightly fearful as she stands there, trembling like a frightened deer.

Another hurt opens in my chest, for she hasn't accepted me once again like Naruto has, and won't ever be able to, as I can see with a single glance. Kiba just looks confused, not seeming to know whether to take me seriously. Shikamaru's expression doesn't change. Then Hinata nervously catches my eye, and she is smiling with sudden kindness and acceptance of my words, amazingly _along_ with her enormous grief over Shino and Chouji.

I can't believe it. Eyes widening with wonder, we look at each other, and I smile slightly with silent thanks resounding in the single gesture, to the only person here who truly believes me.

Hinata

_The clouds gather round in a soft, creamy halo, casting warm rose and deep, cerulean blue upon the land so far below._

_You sit patiently, waiting for me in the light-filled courtyard, breathing in the heavy, strong heat as if you can never take in enough fire and warmth._

_I rest my head on your cool arm, and gold summer burns in your heart, trickling through your veins._

_A beautiful contentedness breaks across your features._

_The elation is almost too painful to bear._

_You open your eyes, and sunbeams bathe the two of us in joy._

_I will shield you until the sun dies and the stars rain down from the heavens._

*

Hinata had been going with Kiba to get the daily report from the sentries that morning, everything pretty much the same as usual, and she had been in quite in a good mood. She closed her eyes and imagined Konoha's early morning in all its beauty, still peaceful and happy, even after the huge invasion that had almost crippled the village a few months ago. Life still went on, she thought happily, looking at the shop-keepers setting up their wares, children running and laughing, people opening their windows and yawning, and the Leaf ninja walking purposefully towards their different destinations.

But then sadness ruined her joy as Hinata remembered how many people had died to protect the village, including some of her friends, she thought, and winced.

She wandered down the street, lost in thought, and almost didn't notice Kakashi-sensei in front of her, almost crashing into him, and then noticing Sakura and Shikamaru were there already, joking with Izumo.

'Sorry!' she apologized, fidgeting with her hands in embarrassment, but Kakashi smiled and nonchalantly waved a hand in dismissal. Hinata was relieved that he didn't mind.

Then his friendliness melted away, leaving his face blank, dead and hard.

What could have I done to offend him? Hinata worried, but then she saw where he was looking, beyond the golden stand lit up by the sun, into the spidery shadows of one of the majestic gates of Konoha.

Four ANBU were escorting a prisoner to his coming execution, Hinata realised sadly as she picked up the report, and wished there was another way to give out justice than death, even though the criminal must have committed terrible crimes, seeing as not many offences deserved the death penalty in Konoha.

Efficiently rustling the papers into shape, Hinata looked at the prisoner, and he didn't look more than a year older than her, if that! Confusion taking over, she took a close look at him with trepidation, and chakra bindings shimmering round his neck, he slowly raised his head.

Paralysing shock struck Hinata with huge force, and she let go of all the documents she had been holding, letting them swirl away in the morning breeze.

She couldn't breathe, she couldn't move, momentarily crippled.

Time had stopped.

The condemned man was Sasuke Uchiha, traitor of the Leaf and murderer of many Konoha ninja.

How would Naruto cope with this?! Hinata thought vaguely, trying to pull her mind back to the issue at hand.

'Hinata? What's wrong?' Kiba asked, leaning inquisitively over her shoulder, so she pointed a slender, shaking finger towards the gates, causing his face to burst out in horror and loathing.

Sakura and Shikamaru registered the fact also a split second afterwards, and froze, one in shock and one simply still as a statue, face wiped clean of all emotion. Kiba began to yell out in fury, but to Hinata, it sounded as if his voice was coming from the other end of an endless, dark tunnel. The last time she had seen Sasuke was such a nightmarish memory Hinata could barely comprehend it, when he had killed Shino before her and Kiba's eyes.

Hinata gazed in terror at Shino's murderer, remembering how he had looked before.

Cold. Emotionless. Powerful. But above all, a heartless killer who had _smiled _as he saw Shino's life drain away from him and watched her and Kiba's helpless horror as their friend was brutally ripped to pieces before their eyes.

Now Sasuke was standing before all his old classmates, Hinata thought in pain, and she shivered like a leaf in the wind. But then getting up the courage, she finally stared straight into Sasuke's eyes, searching for the hate, anger and indifference that had been there before.

But all Hinata could see in the black depths of the onyx eyes was emptiness, and his face was blank and dead. Kiba's shouting then finally broke through her shock, and he and Shikamaru took out every bit of their grief and pain on the murderer of their best friends.

'SASUKE!_ How could you ever get up the fucking nerve to show your face here after what you did, bastard!?' _Kiba screamed, and as Shikamaru hissed how happy he would be to see the death of Chouji's murderer, the accusation and hate poured from their faces and from the others, his expression transformed.

Searing agony appeared in Sasuke's eyes, and he wrapped his arms tightly round himself, trembling with an inner turmoil that roiled in his eyes, that were widened with . . . pain? Hinata gasped. She could see no connection between the arrogant, cruel young man from almost a year ago, to the Sasuke now. His face was etched with lines of misery as he listened to the accusation, and as much as Hinata tried to summon hate for him, she couldn't do it.

Sasuke looked as if he had lived through a thousand years of relentless torture, and she suddenly knew that it would never be possible for him to be hurt more than he had punished himself already. Then her suspicions were confirmed as Sasuke replied for the first time, agreeing with them on everything he'd said.

A clap of violent thunder sounded in the distance, and storm clouds began to merge into a dark canopy over Konoha, bleaching away most of the bright colours and the morning glow of the sun.

Disbelief and shock was written on all their faces and as if one in a dream, Hinata heard an echoing scream of pain, pleading for mercy, but none of the others seemed to be able to hear, she noted faintly.

'_NOOOOOO! Stop it! No more!' _

Shikamaru ran up to Sasuke and punched him on the cheek, but he made no move to defend himself, simply taking the blow.

Then as Hinata looked up again, she met Sasuke's eyes again, and tentatively smiled at him, unknowingly with understanding, not expecting a response. But then faint hope shone from the Uchiha's eyes, and he smiled in reply, a small point of light in the darkness.

*

Tsunade

_Everything in this world fades away._

_Life knows that._

_Futilely, she tries to prevent Death from arriving on the doorstep, using her small kernel of power to keep him away._

_She wants to protect the ones in her care, and if it were anyone else, they would never be lost._

_But Life is only as strong as her patients. _

_When they weaken and surrender to meet their end, so does she._

_For she will always let Death back into her heart, for she cannot exist without him, and strangely enough, without her, he would cease to be._

_Life hates and despises the endless cycle, loathing herself for the role she must play, rejoicing when a patient of hers flies away from Death's seductive, inviting hands; the hands that promise never-ending rest._

_But there is nothing for the people who Death steals away from her, kidnaps in the night._

_Once they have left her antechamber—_

_Eternal emptiness swallows them up._

_Until the end of time._

_*_

Lady Hokage of Konoha, Tsunade Senju, slowly blinked sleep away from her eyes as she woke in the rapidly dimming room, and sat up at her cedar desk, shaking back thick, honey-coloured hair.

'Tonight's the execution,' she whispered with foreboding, and stared out of the window at the dark, hazy storm clouds massing, and all her (urgent) official paperwork forgotten. It was only the beginning of the morning, but already even the weather itself seemed to be foretelling the black event to come, and the sky was remade like the moonless night of the terrible tragedy of the Uchihas.

'Is this the right thing to do?' Tsunade asked the damp air hopelessly, hating her duty. _Was _the death penalty the only way, the only option? So many people had been lost already, and it hurt so damned much to have to destroy more life so that other lives may be saved!

She was the Hokage, damn it! 'I should hold my emotions in check, and carry out my duty as leader with decorum and without doubt. Be a wise Hokage, and always make the right decision.' Tsunade recited to herself, but knowing in her heart she didn't truly believe what she said.

Accidently cutting herself on a paper, Tsunade stood up and looked out over the quiet, beautiful village that she and countless other shinobi had sacrificed so much for. Watching a ruby drop of blood fall from her finger and disappear into the first few raindrops, she felt as if every wound the people of the village had taken was contained in that single tiny drop of festering hurt.

'But that is why I must execute Sasuke, is it not?' she said, 'Don't we all deserve peace and happiness, for at least a while? Not one citizen of the village has really felt safe knowing Sasuke is still alive in Konoha's prison.'

Tears of sorrow began to stream down Tsunade's face, and she gripped the ridged rail tightly with shaking hands as the irony of the situation struck.

'Officially, Sasuke's still a Genin,' she wept silently, 'How could a _seventeen-year-old _have the power to hurt us all so much, with just a dark, driven desire for revenge?!'

And the worst of it was, Tsunade acknowledged that what Naruto had sobbed out to her after Akatsuki's defeat, was that Itachi had martyred himself for the village he truly cared for so much. And also for Sasuke, who had returned his lies, but also love, with hate.

'It was all true!' Tsunade remembered, raging against the blood-drenched fate of the gifted, but cursed Uchihas. 'For all their amazing power, not one of their clan has ever died happily.'

Sasuke had committed terrible crimes, but she couldn't help but miserably wonder if _any _of it had really been his fault. Those piece of shit elders (Tsunade thought vindictively with renewed hatred) had manipulated and blackmailed Itachi into murder, and then _he_ had poisoned the child Sasuke's mind with hate and lies. Then finally Sasuke, years later, twisted with grief, hatred and guilt for killing his brother, had started an all out war between the Hidden Villages and Akatsuki which had still not been completely ended.

Tsunade blankly unlocked her office door, and slowly walked out to the edge of her balcony, letting the crystal rain wash over her pained spirit. Tilting back her face, she cried.

Why do I have to kill for peace? I don't know, she thought. Was it a mistake to accept the post of Hokage? I can't always stand the responsibility. Why can't somebody else make the life-or-death choices, say who dies and who gets to live in this mad, painful, injustice-filled world?

But it's not a question for me to decide, Tsunade thought, and for all my long life I still don't know the answer.

Gazing out at the rain-blurred village, the Lady Hokage of Konoha closed her eyes, and felt the icy wind spiral past her and travel on into infinity, accepting the only words she knew that partly made sense.

'For, in the end, are not we all the tools known as shinobi?'

Kakashi

_The watcher sits on the sidelines, and keeps its eternal vigil._

_Strength it possesses, but not the capacity to change the smallest thing. There is no future for it, for it can never die with the ones it loves. _

_The last few hours arrive silently. The watcher knows it can do nothing._

_Frozen over the expanse of time, it stays motionless._

*

'Where did I go wrong, Obito?' Kakashi asked, but knowing no answer would ever come. As he visited his best friend's grave, he sat down on a fallen, rough-textured log and placed his silver-haired head in his hands. Barely thirty, the new lines of hardship and pain carved into Kakashi's face gave him the appearance of a much older man, one who has seen too many tragedies, too much suffering.

Lashing rain poured down from the smoky, brooding sky, turning the training ground into a dripping forest. The triangular monument at one end ran with a sheet of water, and to Kakashi, it seemed as if that fateful day, more than five years ago, had returned to haunt him.

Sasuke and Naruto, fighting to the death, one to betray, one to save. And neither, in the end, had succeeded in their goal.

He'd run desperately the whole way through the massive forests of Konoha, terrified that both his apprentices would be dead when he got there, lost control of their power. Mere _weeks_ before that, Kakashi had been so proud when Sasuke had finally mastered the Chidori, so happy that he could teach his favorite ninja technique to another who was like him, and _not_ just with the lightning chakra.

Years ago, he had seen himself in the Uchiha boy.

As for now. . . . . .

Kakashi had never imagined what would happen to his apprentice, what Sasuke would do, what murders he would commit with the poisoned taint of revenge that warped the way of the late Lord Sarutobi grotesquely.

'If only . . . I'd said something more to him, so many years ago. I could have spared Naruto so much suffering.' Kakashi whispered. 'But I can't ever change the past.

It will, without a doubt, just about kill Naruto to have to watch Sasuke's death, and once again, I'm helpless to protect him.'

Kakashi was so sick of being useless.

The White Fang had been driven by shame and guilt to commit suicide.

Sometimes, when he was in a particularly black mood, the Copy Ninja wondered if he wouldn't eventually be driven to do the same.

Kakashi sat up, drenched to the bone, silver hair hanging round his face, rather than in its usual spikes. The rain had eased to a steady drizzle, but his soul was as tortured as ever. Sighing, he tried to talk himself round. I need to get over this whole matter! he told himself sternly. If you are any kind of sensei, or Jounin, pull yourself together, man, and stop what-iffing!

A swish in the wet grass behind Kakashi rustled, and he spoke, automatically making it known that he knew they were there. 'What is it?' Turning round, he squinted through the sheets of rain, trying to see the person's outline against the dark, murky trees.

'A last request,' came the answer. Kakashi recognised the voice in shock. It was Sasuke.

Fading in and out of sight, Sasuke silently walked closer, approaching the grey tombstone. Black hair obscuring the view of his face and masking his features, he stopped, as tendrils of mist wreathed round his body from the forest, melting away from the rain.

The two men looked at each other. They stood like statues of ice, rain bouncing off their heads in minute droplets. The emerald leaves of the trees were silent, rustling drowned by the storm. There was no sound.

No sound except for a single question.

'Why are you here?' Kakashi asked, looking at his former student. '_This_ is how you choose to spend your last hours?'

'Yeah,' he replied in a haunted whisper. 'Have to face . . . . 'And then Kakashi could no longer hear him. Sasuke knelt in front of the tombstone, lifting his blank face up to the sky. Water ran down his face, washed back his black hair and pooled at his feet, but it was hard to tell if it was just the rain, or. . .tears? Kakashi gasped, frozen, hardly daring to believe it, but Sasuke was sobbing in anguish, and so they mourned together, for those who had been lost.

Time seemed to turn back, and. . . .

. . . . for now, Kakashi and Sasuke were once again both ninja of Konohagakure. Not sensei and student, but two men who shared a bond, who had lived the same pain, the same suffering of the injustice of life, cheated of all the riches it had to give.

'_Neither of us has exactly led a charmed life, but we've been lucky enough to find friends who can help fill the void within.'_

Weeping tears from the sky, the very heavens mourned with them.

'_Let go of your bitterness. Live everything your life has to offer, before it ends forever.'_

*

I stand in the dull green trees behind the training ground after escaping the ANBU, watching Kakashi sit next to the dripping silver memorial, and I can't decide if he will just ignore me or simply knock me senseless, even if he has just asked what I want.

Might as well chance it.

What more have I got to lose?

I smirk and approach, kneeling in the damp grass nearby, facing away from his hunched figure.

He asks to know why I am here, but I have no answer. Regret? Guilt? Compulsion?

No, not that. It's time to acknowledge what I have done, and hope that the souls of my victims have found some measure of peace, the emotion that I never could feel.

If not happiness, the news of my own death has brought with it some acceptance.

I softly trace the flat grooves of Chouji and Shino's engraved names with sadness.

'Forgive me.'

Opening my overflowing eyes and heart, I then think of my dear older brother for the first time in months, knowing no one will ever be able to hear.

All my feelings threaten to break free and the dam of my restraint crumbles and is washed away as I cry out, screaming wordlessly in grief.

'I'm sorry, Itachi,' I choke out, words ragged with emotion. 'I'm so sorry.'

For all the pain I caused you, big brother, for ending your life so selfishly.

Even if I didn't know you cared for me, that's not an excuse.

'You aren't alone now!'

And it's true. I never forgot; I just buried those feelings deep under a mountain of hatred like the arrogant bastard I was.

I refused to believe that the one person who I thought I had to murder was also the one whose love I craved more than any other.

_Denying the truth, to you, and to myself. _

I tried to end your life like a good son and get revenge for our clan, what would gain our father's acknowledgement, were he still in this world.

To finally be accepted into our parent's hearts by hating and avenging the Uchihas, but in the end. . . . . . . . . .. . . I can't help but forgive you.

Your life was wasted cruelly, but my revenge would only ever bring your memory dishonor, as I realised much too late.

But. . .wherever you are, please let my words reach you.

'I - I love you, Itachi,' I finally say. 'I love you so, so much.'

At that exact instant, a ray of sunlight pierces through the layers of clouds like a beacon of hope, and illuminates the tombstone, Kakashi and I in a blinding pillar of fiery golden brilliance, a light so bright that the very storm clouds break apart, their shadow shattered.

The name of Uchiha on the smooth surface of the stone glows the strongest of all, and the voice from my previous visions, now warm with not a trace of accusation, echoes faintly in the distance.

_It isn't like you to be so emotional, Sasuke. Apologizing to me, of all people! What am I going to do with you, my foolish little brother?_

*

_Light explodes in a vibrant fountain, showering its surroundings in glittering, searing droplets._

_Dark is driven back into its lair, and hope reigns._

_It suggests shyly that not everything has been lost forever._

_Nothing lasts, you say?_

_Love will continue on, and never disappear as long as I do not. A candle has been lit in your heart, and a small, bright flame in mine. Your life will never end._

_Some things last._

_For a brief time, we are happy._

*

Translucent fingers of light stole in through Kakashi's hands as he stood up, and then gaped in shock, eyes widening. Luminous sunshine refracted off the curving monument, sparkled in every lingering raindrop hanging from leaves in the circling forest, glistened on the wet ground, and bathed Sasuke in beams of pure, ivory white radiance.

Kakashi didn't even recognise him. If he hadn't known who was standing in front of him at that moment, face uplifted to the heavens, Kakashi would have had no idea who it was.

Happiness of such beauty shone from Sasuke's face, he was transformed utterly, handsome features suddenly noticeable, and almond-shaped obsidian eyes shining with love that had not graced his face for ten, long, horrible years. He no longer had the expression of a world-weary young man laden down with guilt and pain, but of the prodigal son who has, finally, come home.

Trembling with blind, disbelieving hope, Sasuke seemed to simply stretch out a hand to air, but he looked like he was talking to someone, and some of the light swirled into the shape of another man a bit taller than him, shifting in and out of form with an ethereal light.

_Love you._

Shimmering, the spirit-figure came closer, and embraced his brother in farewell.

_Goodbye, Sasuke._

And the last few specks of light vanished into nothingness.

*

**Jiraiya**

The Hermit of Mt Myobokuzan rested on the top of the lofty peak of a craggy mountain, leaning against a stunted black tree, a tiny crimson-and-white spot against the ashy mountain range wreathed in dark mists. No other living being could be seen for miles, save for a few hungry vultures.

He tilted his head back and closed his tired eyes, relaxing for a few minutes before resuming his exhausting journey, and continuing the hunt.

But suddenly there was a puff of smoke, and a small white-and-blue slug materialized on the twig just above his ragged white mop of hair.

The slug made her presence known.

'Ahem.'

The hermit's eyelid flickered.

'Hmmm?'

'Master Jiraiya?' she asked, her voice a feathery whisper in his ear as she slowly crawled down the rough black bark.

'I suppose Tsunade wants something, Katsuyu?' he muttered crossly. 'Just when I was about to begin a _wonderful_ dream of delectable young ladies. . . . . . . Doesn't that mistress of yours have anything better to do than boss me around?!'He gestured dramatically, his deep baritone growing louder and louder, until it. 'I've been looking for that annoying little rat for days, I think . . . .'

'Tsunade has instructed me to inform you. . . . _Master Jiraiya?_'

'. . . .I deserve a decent rest! What's the damn hurry anyway? She knows I'm not a water-type; it's so much _harder_ to track the chakra of ones who are! Why do I even. . . .'

'_**MASTER JIRAIYA!**_**'** Katsuyu shouted, small body trembling with anger, somehow managing to dwarf the legendary Sannin. 'Listen to me!

'_What?_' Jiraiya growled, menacingly lowering his frowning face to the slug and crossing his arms across his wide chest. He'd had it with the ridiculous game of hide-and-seek that he'd had to participate in with that brat of a Mist missing-nin!

She met his irritated glare squarely, stalk eyes quivering. 'Master Jiraiya, your target's capture and return to the village has become of the gravest urgency! You must find him and be back by tonight, for the execution of the criminal missing-nin Sasuke Uchiha is about to be carried out!'

Having delivered her message, Katsuyu vanished in a creamy swirl of smoke, leaving Jiraiya alone on the windy mountain, his previous mood cruelly shattered, and strong features emotionless. The words which still echoed eerily off the mountains that spread out like tarnished ruby continued to strike him like thunderbolts from some ancient, yellowed old legend. Or perhaps some all-too-familiar, painful déjà vu of approximately thirty years ago.

'So, it's finally time, Naruto,' he murmured flatly. 'I told you to forget about Sasuke, but did you listen? And when this sun sets, you'll be all broken up again. Stupid kid. I warned you.' He would have liked to be sure and self-righteous, but an annoying little gnat of a memory was biting away at his mind, refusing to be ignored. He hadn't handled Orochimaru any better than Naruto had dealt with Sasuke, and probably even worse.

Back in the times of his youth, he'd chased after his teammate, to the borders of the Land of Fire, to the Valley of the End. It would have made a perfect scene for a novel, he mused darkly. Why did these tragedies come out of books and into real life? _They had no damn right!_

He and Tsunade had spent many nights visiting the few bars that Konoha boasted, and some it didn't, when they had travelled in years long past, as a strong liking for sake was something the two of them shared. And when they were both so sloshed with alcohol that Jiraiya could later hardly unearth the fragile memories, they'd talk. Because it was safe, only then, for them to unfold and lay out the hurt and tragedy of years, for Tsunade to show her grief for her family and fiancé, etched in stone over her existence. It was safe for Jiraiya to leaf through all his bitter regrets from so many instances of his long life, all the acts he shouldn't have carried out, and all the deeds he _should_ have carried out.

And there was, inescapably, the overarching, terrible guilt that the two surviving Sannin still shared, bore like a load of iron and steel. The guilt of not being able to change Orochimaru, to keep him in Konoha, where they had once stubbornly believed was his home.

It had been torture for Jiraiya to watch Naruto go through the agony of losing Sasuke, to realise the Uchiha boy had deserted the village just as Orochimaru had, cast it off for power like a dusty old kimono that was no longer grand and beautiful enough to keep.

Oh, of course he'd tried to reason with Naruto as the boy lay in his hospital bed, make him see that Sasuke was now a lost cause, that his treasured friend was reduced to a blank target that was and _couldn't_ be anything else but a threat. For the one thing Jiraiya had dreaded above all else was his student having to meet Sasuke as an enemy, and probably having to kill him. And his arguments had simply bounced of the impermeable shield of Naruto's faith in his former friend. Infuriated, Jiraiya had wanted to shake his stupid apprentice, shout at him with desperate futility, remind Naruto _who_ exactly had almost killed him, and _force_ him to see sense, but it had all been in vain. As Jiraiya, somewhere on a forgotten page of his heart, had known all along.

He sighed in surrender, powerful shoulders slumping with the weight of years.

Naruto had had, Jiraiya bitterly realised, the blind faith and devotion that would eventually lead to the merciless crushing of all his hopes and dreams.

It wasn't right, but hating that truth with a passion could not change either of their futures, or Sasuke's fate.

Then as Tsunade, far away, wept in the crystal rainfall, Jiraiya buried his face in his hands, masked in the sky's bloodstained luminance.

'Fool once, fool for life.'

*

Well then, I hope you enjoyed it. ^_^

Review if you can, please! I'd especially like an opinion on the interludes between the sections! (you know, the ones written in italics in asterisks)

Look out for the next chapter, _Rage of the Skies._


	2. Chess Game of the Night

Think of this as an interlude chapter, as it's been off the site for a while. An actual update will definitely be up in a month.

Chess Game

Faint strains of the cricket's dusk chorus whispered through the garden as Shikamaru entered his family home, letting the small gate thud quietly on its hinges. He was a rude contrast to nature's beauty and serenity next to the crystal pool, the heart of the garden.

He did not fit, was not right.

Wrath and disquiet leaked from his every movement, horribly shown by the bloody, brooding sun that fell from the heavens and sank behind the rooftops.

Shikamaru Nara was an analytical person. He did not get excited easily, did not get angry unless greatly provoked. You would have to murder his family to arouse his true dark nature, bitter, roiling and eternal, or perhaps- his best friend. This happened to be the exact situation, down to the finishing move on the chessboard, the penultimate dare of life and death.

Shikamaru Nara was a quiet, laid back kind of person. He cared deeply for his friends and family, would have died for them. Not in the patriotic view of a ninja for his village and comrades, not the meaningless words of service he had always loathed with a core-deep passion.

He, to put it simply, loved the people he loved. No more, no less. As Shikamaru had once put to himself as the cold slithering hands of death were emerging from his traitorous, deceitful shadow, as they were tightening mercilessly on his throat, he had grudgingly admitted he had only become a ninja because he had thought it would be interesting, a stimulant for his brilliant mind that had been long wasting away with disuse. He had believed it at the time, but the more time ticked by in his life, as the years filed themselves away in his internal library of deductions and grisly methods to break the slender, fragile thread of another's breath and life, the more he realised what a sham that claim had been. The Naras, his clan, family, and life, was everything to him. Everything. And they existed in the stained, tarnished shadows of death, forcing the black shapes to carry out their desires. Shikamaru had approved of that when he first began to coax the subtle, elusive, delicate art of shadows from his clean, innocent, bored-with-life-in-general heart, body, and lazily flowing, insultingly tiny river of power.

And with those abilities at the tip of his fingers, Shikamaru had gained something of immeasurable worth. A kind of contentment.

Which was now false.

Unlike most of the other warriors in his village, he had never questioned the ninja system, naturally accepting it as a part of life. But Shikamaru still did not question it, could not make himself see any real injustice in it. And that was what had terrified him so completely, shaking his deep-rooted beliefs and nindo to such a horrible degree that he had buried that knowledge about himself, bombarded and disguised it with a flurry of facts and thoughts, normal, obvious, and above all things, safe.

For shame was one of the emotions Shikamaru could not bear. Death and betrayal would, _could_ not sway him, but shame would break him.

Nobody but Shikamaru himself could have understood his strange, powerful logic about this, for the opinions of every faceless, empty person merged as one, into the sea of the cold business known as reality. Most people in Konoha would have asked; _Why is a deadly weapon, a ninja, worried about faithfulness? For surely that is a good thing?_

Why? Because Shikamaru did not question cold, effective, _ways_ of leadership that a certain man would mercilessly make. The monarch of Root ANBU, Danzo-sama. The right process that would save a lord and condemn an unimportant village to the black void.

Shikamaru could see, comprehend such dark paths of reasoning without more than no fleeting appearances of doubt. Automatically, like a machine.

He had run from that fact, hated it with a passion. The day he had begun to have dealings with Root on Tsunade-sama's orders, Shikamaru had understood them, their alien and methodical ways of torture and death. He hadn't wanted to be that kind of man, but he knew, he knew that if it came down to it, if he, one day, received the command to do so, he could massacre weak warriors whose feeble tactics could never reach the massive reaches of his natural brilliance.

Shikamaru could kill non-ninja if he saw the logic in it.

Innocents who were guilty of nothing more than sharing a life with the condemned.

Without even lazily blinking a dark eye as he wiped the thick, accusing blood from his stained hands. That was the final deciding strategy on the board of life that would see Shikamaru down the point of no return, the move that would make everyone he cared about meaningless, expendable pieces under his manipulation.

Could he kill his friends, family? The people who were dearest to him, the one who he loved above all others?

That was a question he never wanted to have answered.

And it was also the real, brutal reason he hated Sasuke Uchiha so very much. To the point where he wanted to rip the flesh from Sasuke's bones, tear muscles and feel the blood spatter on his pale, dying face for having the audacity, _daring_ to kill Chouji.

Shikamaru had not often felt wrath, but in the past year, after Chouji's death, his wrath for Sasuke had boiled below the river of his power, still boiled, until he would gasp for breath, almost choking with hatred.

He'd barely been able to keep his long-restrained rage behind bars when he had come across Sasuke the preceding day, before the execution. His all-too-effective mind had instantly produced a dozen ways to rip the Uchiha apart. The river of his power was no longer a river; it had broken free of his dam of logic, rushing in waves of chaos and insanity, roaring with the fury of a lion, screaming for revenge, lusting for Sasuke's blood.

Long ago when Chouji had been murdered, Shikamaru had screamed, wept, raged, thrown things around, broken furniture, but in the end, as with his teacher, he had coldly sworn on his life and soul to avenge the death of the one he loved.

At that point, he almost didn't care when the emotionless logic that he had once so feared finally took over, made good on its silent, ancient promise to transform him into a monster, and swallowed him up, body and soul, like the black beast it was.

After all, sacrifices were necessary if you desired to win the game.

For cold, heartless reasoning now held the promise of far greater suffering than pure rage for Shikamaru. Logic was neutral; the absence of colour or fire, merciless, and when he had turned his oceans of hot, vindictive, hatred into calm, structured revenge, when the uncertain disturbances of his world and nindo had settled, then there was nothing that could change it, and nobody that could stop him from accomplishing his ends.

His life had then been, essentially, over.

The last, dirty part of the fact Shikamaru had so long ago come to realise, was that he was no better than Sasuke.

And never had been.


End file.
